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Does the Vine App Have a Place in Government?

Vine was developed by Vine Labs Inc. and was acquired by – guess who – Twitter. It's a mobile service that allows you to record and upload 6-second looping videos. You can record something for the full 6 seconds, or several shots within that time, effectively making a poor man’s stop motion animation video.

Celebrities and average Joes are setting up Vine accounts, but should government agencies cozy up to the platform, too? I put together this short GovGirl video to explore the idea.

I always encourage government to simplify their messages. If you had to communicate in 6-second pieces, it leaves no room for boring! A video encouraging business license renewal online gets right to the point. People are using the platform for entertainment rather than hard news, but that could change if governments use it to communicate things like weather conditions and emergency notices.

I would have liked more features – like being able to edit my videos – but the app was simple to use and integrates well with Twitter. Right now it’s only an iOS app, but Twitter plans to offer Vine on more platforms in the future.

After I shot this GovGirl video, Vine released an update warning about age-restricted material and requiring users to confirm 17+ status. Something governments should be aware of, but keep in mind that other popular platforms like Tumblr have done this recently as well.

ABOUT

Kristy is known as “GovGirl” in the government technology industry. She is a former city government web manager who has a passion for social media, technology and the lighter side of government life. Kristy is the CEO of Government Social Media.

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Catch weekly GovGirl videos here on GovTech and follow hashtag #GovGirl on Twitter for more conversation.